Jack Smith Wants a Gag Order Against Donald Trump in January 6 Case

Special counsel Jack Smith has asked a judge to issue a gag order to former President Donald Trump in his Jan. 6 case to prevent him from publicly attacking major figures in the case.

“The defendant’s past conduct, including conduct that has taken place after and as a direct result of the indictment in this case, amply demonstrates the need for this order,” reads a filing from prosecutors that Politico obtained.

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Jim Jordan Probes Jack Smith’s Office

Republican House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan is launching a probe into Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office over an aide who allegedly “improperly pressured” a lawyer representing a defendant in former President Donald Trump’s classified documents case, he announced in a letter Thursday.

The investigation focuses on senior prosecutor Jay Bratt’s alleged effort to pressure Stanley Woodward, who represents Walt Nauta, former President Donald Trump’s co-defendant in the classified documents case. Bratt implied that the Biden administration would be more favorable towards Woodward’s application for a D.C. superior court judgeship if his client cooperated as a witness against former President Donald Trump, according to Jordan’s letter.

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Commentary: The Mugshot Heard ‘Round the World

Donald Trump’s historic arrest in Georgia Thursday evening was a virtual declaration of war on America. A former president was dragged into a filthy county jail behind enemy lines and had his mugshot taken, adding insult to the injury of an indictment for the bogus crime of challenging his political opponent. The dramatic moment followed days of buildup, as the “co-conspirators” in his “criminal enterprise” were methodically paraded in front of the country. These nefarious plotters include lawyers like John Eastman, a decent man whose “crime” is giving legal advice on a contentious constitutional question.

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Judge Sides with Trump on Protective Order, Handing Jack Smith an Early Defeat

A federal judge on Friday sided with Donald Trump, rejecting a request from Special Counsel Jack Smith for a protective order that would have imposed some speech restrictions on the former president as he runs in the 2024 election.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan ruled prosecutors did not meet the burden for the protective order but also put Trump on notice he will have to be careful about what he says and releases about the case.

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Trump Leads Biden by Four Points After Indictments: Poll

Former President Donald Trump leads President Joe Biden in a hypothetical 2024 rematch, a recent survey has shown.

Trump earned the support of 42% of registered voters in the latest Premise survey, posting a 4-point lead over Joe Biden’s 38% support. Against Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, Biden claimed a modest 2-point lead, edging out the GOP’s second-place candidate by 36% to 34%. 

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Yet More Indictments: Prosecution of 2020 Alternate Electors in Six of Seven States Likely

In Special Counsel Jack Smith’s indictment of former President Donald Trump regarding the 2020 presidential election and Jan. 6, the issue of alternate electors from seven states has become another focal point, as officials – all Democrats – from six of those states determine whether to prosecute.

In the federal indictment of Trump last week, Smith charged the former president with four counts, including conspiracy to defraud, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of, and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights. The indictment also acknowledges six unnamed co-conspirators with whom Trump allegedly did “conspire, confederate, and agree” to defraud the country.

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Commentary: Trump Indictment Is a Mockery of Common Sense

At the end of the classic independent film Reservoir Dogs, the characters end up in a Mexican standoff. The criminal gang’s ringleader, Joe, insists that Mr. Orange is working with the police, even though he is dying on the floor, having been shot during a failed jewelry store heist. Mr. White – the crooks use aliases – insists that Joe is wrong. Guns get drawn. Mr. White demands some proof for Joe’s claim about Mr. Orange. Joe angrily responds, “You don’t need proof when you have instinct!” You can watch the (admittedly brutal) scene here.

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Five 2020 Election Irregularities, Illegalities That Collide with Jack Smith’s Trump Indictment

Former President Donald Trump has been arraigned on four felony counts alleging he conspired to spread claims of 2020 election fraud that he knew to be untrue to stop certification of the vote.

Federal prosecutors bringing the case, however, will have to contend with at least five high-profile cases of confirmed irregularities or illegalities from the 2020 contest ranging from Iranian interference to unlawful voting procedures.

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Pence Statements Prior to January 6 Undercut His Claims on Election Integrity, Constitutional Duty

Special Counsel Jack Smith’s most recent indictment of former President Donald Trump repeatedly referenced former Vice President Mike Pence objecting to Trump’s efforts to overturn the election and insisting that the vice president had no authority to halt the electoral certification process.

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Commentary: Former President Donald Trump Had a Right to Challenge the Results of the 2020 Election

Former President Donald Trump, who is running for president again in 2024 for the Republican nomination, has once again been indicted on Aug. 1 by Special Counsel Jack Smith, this time for challenging the results of the 2020 election, alleging Trump “spread lies that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that he had actually won. These claims were false, and the Defendant knew that they were false.”

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Judge Overseeing Trump 2020 Election Case Donated Thousands to Obama

The federal judge overseeing special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution of former President Donald Trump over the 2020 election donated thousands of dollars to elect Barack Obama as president.

D.C. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, a 2014 Obama appointee, is presiding over Trump’s case after he was indicted Tuesday on four charges related to his alleged involvement in challenging the 2020 election and the subsequent Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

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Jack Smith’s Team Admits to ‘Incorrect’ Claim About Evidence in Trump Classified Documents Case

Special counsel Jack Smith’s team admitted to incorrectly claiming to have turned over evidence as required by law in the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump. 

While preparing last week to indict Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira for allegedly conspiring with Trump to delete surveillance footage from the estate, prosecutors learned that footage included as evidence “had not been processed and uploaded to the platform established for the defense to view,” Smith’s team wrote in a filing Monday.

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Vivek Ramaswamy Sues the DOJ, Files New FOIA Request Relating to Trump Indictment

GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) after the department failed to respond to his previously-filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to uncover the communication between the White House, DOJ, and Special Counsel Jack Smith about the indictment in the classified documents case of former President Donald Trump.

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Republicans Condemn New Charges in Trump Classified Docs Case

Conservatives and Republicans condemned a new round of charges against former President Donald Trump in the case involving classified material at Mar-a-Lago.

Special Counsel Jack Smith revealed the new charges in a superseding indictment issued Thursday that included charges against Carlos De Oliveira, a maintenance worker at Mar-a-Lago, the Florida estate owned by former President Trump. Smith initially secured a 37-count indictment against Trump in June.

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Trump Says His Team Met Prosecutors, Who Gave No Indication of Indictment in 2020 Election Probe

Former President Donald Trump said his legal team had a “productive meeting” Thursday with the Justice Department for Special Counsel Jack Smith’s probe, but prosecutors did not give any indication that he would receive a notice of indictment in the probe involving efforts to challenge the 2020 election results.

“My attorneys had a productive meeting with the DOJ this morning, explaining in detail that I did nothing wrong, was advised by many lawyers, and that an Indictment of me would only further destroy our Country. No indication of notice was given during the meeting — Do not trust the Fake News on anything!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

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Commentary: The ‘Get Trump’ Games Continue

It all started with a self-important official at the National Archives and Records Administration. Or at least that’s the official story.

In May 2021, William Bosanko, NARA’s chief executive officer, noticed two presidential documents were missing from the Trump Administration: the letter Barack Obama wrote to Donald Trump and correspondence between Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

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Don’t Be a ‘Disciple of the Donor Class:’ Ramaswamy Calls on Fellow Presidential Candidates to Commit to Pardoning Trump on Classified Records Charges

Political outsider and GOP presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy is calling on all of his 2024 competitors — Republicans and Democrats — to commit to pardoning former President Donald Trump should he be convicted of the federal classified documents charges against him.

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Legal Experts: Politically Motivated, Yes, But Trump Could Be in Trouble with Latest Indictment

While many Americans feel former President Donald Trump is the target of a political witch hunt by the Biden administration and its allies, the latest allegations against the Republican Party’s top presidential candidate are troubling, according to a leading constitutional law expert.

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GOP Presidential Candidate Ramaswamy Files FOIA Request Seeking Biden Communications with Special Prosecutor in Trump Indictment

Ohio entrepreneur and Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy says his campaign has filed a Freedom of Information Act request to uncover communications between the White House, Attorney General Merrick Garland and Jack Smith, special prosecutor behind the latest indictment of former President Donald Trump.

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Jack Smith Touts Severity of Trump Charges, but Highlights Presumption of Innocence

Special counsel Jack Smith on Friday addressed his case against former President Donald Trump, whom he has charged with 37 counts, including mishandling classified documents, making false statements, conspiracy to obstruct, and falsification of records. Smith, whom Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed, has pursued the DOJ’s case against Trump since November. The case first became a matter of public knowledge in August of last year when the FBI raided Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate seeking classified materials he may have removed from the White House.

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Trump Special Counsel’s Wife Was a Co-Producer for Michelle Obama’s Netflix Documentary

The wife of Jack Smith, the special counsel appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate former President Donald Trump, was a producer of a documentary on Michelle Obama in 2020 and has an extensive record of producing left-wing films.

Katy Chevigny, 42, is a filmmaker who married Smith in 2011, and who produced “Becoming,” a Netflix documentary based on the memoir published by Michelle Obama in 2020. As one of the four top producers on the project, Chevigny led the documentary’s creation and worked closely with the Obamas and their company, Higher Ground Productions, on the project.

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Special Counsel Investigating Trump Was Key Figure in IRS Targeting Scandal

Jack Smith, the special counsel appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate former president Donald Trump’s possession of classified information, was a key figure in the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)’s infamous targeting of conservative non-profits, according to a 2014 report by Republicans on the House Oversight Committee.

On Oct. 8, 2010, Smith, then-Chief of the DOJ Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section at the time, called a meeting with former IRS official Lois Lerner “to discuss how the IRS could assist in the criminal enforcement of campaign-finance laws against politically active nonprofits,” according to testimony from Richard Pilger, then director of the section’s Election Crimes Branch and subordinate of Smith’s, to the Oversight Committee. Lerner eventually resigned from the IRS in 2015 following criticism of her targeting of conservative groups when denying or delaying tax-exempt status.

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